In a move sure to anger neighbouring Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have agreed to consider a joint collaboration for production of a mega film depicting the “War of Liberation”. In the 1971 war India intervened on behalf of what was then East Pakistan. It took only 13 days for Pakistan to surrender to India and the nation of Bangladesh was created. The war remains an emotive issue in Bangladesh and has informed several films produced there. The most famous India-Bangladesh film collaboration remains Ritwik Ghatak’s Titash Ekti Nodir Naam (1973).

India’s Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Manish Tewari, met his Bangladesh counterpart Hasanul Haq Inu on Thursday and had extensive discussions on critical issues related to information and broadcasting sector. The ministers agreed to increase the collaboration between Prasar Bharti and Bangladesh Television. The neighbours will consider co-productions and exchange of television programmes and archival material.

Tewari also said that his ministry “was in the process of issuing a notification shortly regarding the constitution of an Inter-Ministerial Empowered Committee, which would provide single window clearance for shooting of foreign films in India. The proposed Committee to be constituted would include representatives of the State Governments and key Central Government Ministries. The creation of such an Empowered Committee would provide the platform and impetus to promote India as a Filming Destination across the world.”

The I&B ministry has been harping on this for a while now. Meanwhile, foreign productions keep coming to shoot in India regularly and they continue to be forced to employ shady middlemen to grease the palms of officials in various ministries to get the necessary shoot permissions. The films’ budgets show these bribes as ‘gratuities’. Hopefully Tewari will display some dynamism and get the single window clearance implemented sooner rather than later. It will go a long way towards destroying India’s reputation as a corrupt nation, at least in the film sector.